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Showing results for tags 'power pickup'.
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Okay, I'm not bashing the excellent finely detailed USA Trains Big Boy at all...Well it is too heavy but that's another topic. What I am bringing to attention here is a major manufacturing flaw that I discovered after running it for a few days. What it would do is short itself out electrically for no real reason. Sometimes it would short itself out when changing direction. The dang problem drove me crazy trying to figure it out. Every drive wheel has a carbon brush rubbing against the backside to pickup power from the rails. Problem is the brushes are located in the frame incorrectly. The stainless steel drive wheel tires are insulated from the black wheel centers/ discs by some kind of insulating material that's applied to the drive wheel before the tire/ rim is pressed on. But the power pickup brushes are positioned so once they start wearing/ or shift in their holder and rub on the driver center they bridge the insulated section then they energize the whole damn engine & tender as it's all die-cast metal. If both sides happen to do it the engine shorts out and blows the fuses I have at the power supply. If there's any bare wires touching the inside of the boiler then either the lighting voltage boards or in my case the ProtoSound 2 boards will get fried at the same time. Here's a pic of the problem...the red arrows show where the red electrical insulating material is between the tire/ rim and the driver center and clearly shows how the power pickup brushes are incorrectly positioned..major manufacturing flaw! Yes USA Trains is aware of the problem but they offer no support other than to change the brushes when they start wearing Off course this is no problem for the battery power crowd.
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- power pickup issues
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